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The Lights Are Still Out at the Victoria

The redevelopment of the Victoria Theater, once Harlem's largest theater, has fallen more than a year behind schedule amid a battle over competing proposals.Credit
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

The sign behind the popcorn stand at the Victoria Theater, a once-thriving vaudeville house and movie palace on 125th Street, spells out the last featured performance before the theater closed its doors in 1997: "Godspell."

A state board has chosen two finalists for the long-awaited redevelopment of what was Harlem's largest and most elegant theater, only a few doors east of its smaller and better-known sister, the Apollo Theater. The proposals would preserve the Victoria's Ionic columns and terra-cotta rosettes while transforming the property into a hotel, condominium and entertainment complex along Harlem's resurgent central shopping and cultural thoroughfare.

But the project is more than a year behind schedule. Like the lobby, it is frozen in time, as members of the state board, the Harlem Community Development Corporation, battle with the Pataki administration over the fate of the 89-year-old theater.

The board's chairman, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, who like many of its members is a Democrat, says that the state is improperly trying to force a real estate company with close ties to the Republican governor back into consideration. The board pared the company, Apollo Real Estate Advisers, from a list of bidders in January.

Little has happened since, although Mr. Wright said a showdown might be in the offing. State officials, he said, are scouring Harlem for Republicans to fill a half-dozen long-vacant seats on the board of the development corporation.

"We're fighting for the soul of one of Harlem's grandest edifices," Mr. Wright said last week during a flashlight tour of the Victoria, where the electricity works only in the lobby. "The state is being very heavy-handed. They're trying to stuff Apollo Realty down our throats. The board wanted minority participation, job creation and a cultural component."

Nonsense, countered Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation. He said he was merely asking the Harlem corporation, a subsidiary of Empire State, to account for its decision to turn down what he said was the best financial offer for the property, $27 million, or $5.25 million more than any other bidder.

That bid came from Apollo and its partner, Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Apollo, a large national real estate investment concern, was co-founded by William L. Mack, whose family has been a generous contributor to the Republican Party and Gov. George E. Pataki. The governor put Mr. Mack's brother, David, on the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; another brother, Earle, is ambassador to Finland and a friend and unofficial adviser to Mr. Pataki.

"It had nothing to do with Mack," Mr. Gargano said. "It's a question of accountability. That was our concern."

Howard J. Rubenstein, a spokesman for Apollo, sharply denied any implication that the state's intervention was due to political influence. He said William Mack had not contributed to Governor Pataki's political campaigns in many years. "On the merits," Mr. Rubenstein said, "Apollo deserves to win."

The Victoria, built in 1917, was designed by the theater architect Thomas W. Lamb for vaudeville, and it later became a first-run movie theater. The state took it over in 1977. It was carved into five small theaters, which offered movies, plays, lectures and musical performances before the complex closed in 1997.

In October 2004, the Harlem development board members solicited bids from developers, and much to their surprise, received nine offers. The long-planned revival of 125th Street was finally getting under way, with businesses like Old Navy, Seaman's, Magic Johnson Theaters, Modell's and H & M moving there.

In its request for proposals, the board said it wanted a project at the Victoria that would preserve the theater's architecture, create jobs for local residents, complement nearby development, include a cultural component and give the state an economic return.

Photo

Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, right, and Harold Sharp examine the second floor of the Victoria Theater in Harlem. The former vaudeville house and movie palace on 125th Street has been closed since 1997.Credit
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

After months of delays, the executive committee of the development corporation voted in January to narrow the list of finalists to two from four: Steven C. Williams of Danforth Development Partners and Robert Jones and Paul Williams of Victoria Tower Development. Apollo and another developer, Integrated Holdings, failed to make the cut.

The Pataki administration representatives voted in favor of either Apollo and Danforth, or Apollo and Victoria Tower, according to the minutes of the committee meeting. After the January vote, the administration said the entire board had to vote on the matter and comply with a recently enacted state law requiring it to explain why it had not picked the highest bid for the property.

When the full board voted in April, it ratified the selection of Danforth and Victoria Tower as the finalists, to the chagrin of the state officials on the board and in part because of information in an analysis from Mr. Gargano's staff. Memos from his agency in March and April ranked the value of the Apollo bid behind offers from the two finalists.

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Mr. Gargano said those earlier memos were based on inaccurate information. After the January vote, he said, his agency obtained additional data from the bidders for a side-by-side comparison, which shows Apollo's $27 million offer far ahead of Danforth's $21.75 million and Victoria Tower's $19.6 million.

Mr. Gargano is pressing for yet another vote and has notified the board that the state will be appointing at least one new member, Keith Wofford, a Republican lawyer from Harlem. Five of the board's 25 seats still remain open.

Until the dispute is resolved, the leading bidders remain in limbo. Mr. Williams of Danforth said he was puzzled as to how the state valued the bids. He said the original bid documents "never implied this was an auction for the land."

He added, "They talked about creating a catalyst for development, for housing, and providing access for community arts programs and employment opportunities."

The Danforth proposal called for creating a new Savoy Ballroom with banquet space for 300 people, as well as a 90-room hotel designed by Ian Schrager and two theaters for performing arts companies.

The other selected bidders, Mr. Jones and Mr. Williams of Victoria Tower, sent an angry letter on April 3 to the Harlem development corporation questioning whether the selection process was "being undermined, if not thwarted, by forces outside of the board solely for the benefit of a third proposer who has close ties to high government officials."

The Victoria Tower proposal included a 304-room hotel, condos, a B. B. King Entertainment Center and two music clubs reflecting black and Latino culture. Apollo and Starwood proposed creating a $103 million W hotel with 58 condos and office space for the Apollo Theater Foundation, as well as a small performing arts theater and a cafe.

State Senator David A. Paterson, Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr. and Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, all Democratic members of the Harlem board who favored Danforth and Victoria, said the state was trying to change rules at the end of the game.

"This raises so many red flags," Mr. Paterson said. "It will ignite so much acrimony in the community if this continues. If they already knew who they wanted to give the contract to, why did they go to bid?"

Assemblyman Wright said the board ultimately rejected the Apollo proposal because it did not appear that the jobs would go to Harlem residents or that the theater's architectural integrity would be preserved.

This proved to be an important issue even for a state appointee who ultimately voted in favor of the Apollo proposal. According to the January minutes, Deborah Boatright, who represents the state's housing commissioner, said that the company was "willfully weak" in areas of importance to the community. If Apollo did not improve its proposal during contract negotiations, she said, "they should not get this deal."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: The Lights Are Still Out at the Victoria. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe